Households in the southwest of the country are in suspense due to the shortage of natural gas supply due to a failure in a pipeline of the gas pipeline between Mariquita and Cali registered on May 20, 2023.
Due to the anomaly, not only has there been a shortage of gas, but also of water, as is the case in the municipality of Pereira (Risaralda).
In this regard, the opposition figure and representative of the Afro communities in the Congress, Miguel Polo Polo, questioned the role played by the Mines and Energies portfolio in associating the moment with an embarrassing event that occurred during 2019 in the Nicolás Maduro regime.
Polo Polo tweeted on his Twitter account: “Pereira without gas and without water. As the Chavista minister of mines of Venezuela said, in a few words: if it’s time to cook on a wood stove for the revolution, well, let Venezuelan homes get used to it. Colombia is going backwards like a crab. Returned to the time of the caves”.
The representative to the Afro communities was referring to the questioned statements leaked in 2019 by the then Deputy Minister of Gas of Venezuela Yazmín Ramírez, who would have indicated that Venezuelans should get used to cooking with firewood.
“Yes, for that, people have to cook with firewood, well, let them get used to it, let them get used to the firewood and the stoves. How did grandmothers do before, comrade? How do they do in the fields in many other countries?
Although Polo Polo was not the only member of the opposition who referred to the questioned statements and the current situation in the country, the lawyer Daniel Briceño took advantage of his trill to criticize the also questioned Irene Vélez.
“Venezuela’s deputy gas minister said that people had to get used to cooking with firewood in the face of gas shortages. President Petro and his minister Irene Vélez want to entrust the gas supply for all of Colombia to them ”.
Added to Vélez’s questions was that of the director of the National Salvation Movement, Enrique Gómez, who stated that the invitation made by the minister to save gas is the product of improvisation:
“The little or nothing prepared ‘minister of mines’ Irene Vélez sends to tell Colombians to save gas. Because when it is improvised it is the only thing that remains: the story, the chatter. #NoMas from this circus of ideologized squires who don’t even know where they stand.”
Gas supply to the south of the country
After more than a week after the presence of gases and vapors was reported in the La Virgen sector, close to the Cerro Bravo volcano, expert entities from the Environment and Mines and Energy ministries raised the first hypothesis about what the thermal anomaly would mean in the interior of the geological structure located on the road that connects Bogotá with Manizales. Due to this gas phenomenon in Cerro Bravo, the natural gas distribution companies for vehicles, industries, businesses and homes were forced to suspend service in the departments of Tolima, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío, Nariño, Cauca and Valle del Cauca.
However, given the despair of the citizens, the national government released important news: in the next few hours the gas service would be restored for millions of Colombians.
After the PMU installed for the evaluation of the contingency in Cerro Bravo, the Minister of Mines Irene Vélez pointed out:
“Attention: Once the PMU ordered by the Pdte. Gustavo Petro, together with Transportadora de Gas Internacional SA in Cerro Bravo, announce that, gradually, within 12 hours, the domestic natural gas service will be restored in the Coffee Region and the Southwest of the country”.
Within the framework of her speech, the head of the Mining Ministry explained that with the gas service operation teams, the technical comprehension tests began; These works allow the gas to be sent to the main pipes during Thursday. with Infobae